


Payback

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 01:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5071933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Keigo quickly realises their mistake in deliberately injuring Kageyama; hurt one crow, the rest of the murder will come after you, out for your blood.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>When the opposing team targets Kageyama during a practice match and sends him to the hospital, they come to fear Hinata's -- excuse me -- <i>Karasuno's</i> wrath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Payback

**Author's Note:**

> So I originally had this idea but thought I wasn't good enough to write it and sent it in to someone as an anonymous prompt, but then I sucked it up and wrote it because the idea wouldn't leave me alone, so here it is! If you're the person who received this idea as a prompt, hi it was me!

Payback

The opposition is getting stressed out about the freak quick. Hinata sees that as clear as day. They don’t know what to do to combat it; most of them are too slow, blockers can’t catch up to him. When they can, the ball goes in the opposite direction to Tanaka or Asahi. The Keigo volleyball team is angry.

“What are we gonna do?” Hinata hears one of them growl, after calling a time out.

There’s silence from them after that. Hinata glances over, wiping the sweat from his face and neck with a handtowel, and sees them approaching the court with smug smiles on their face. If they think that after their sloppy performance in the first set that they can catch up now, they’re sorely mistaken. They aren’t a team with a strong core. Their offence and defence is pathetic compared to Karasuno’s.

And yet, they’re shooting wolfish grins at Kageyama, and Hinata can’t help but feel slightly apprehensive. Those looks mean nothing but trouble.

The score is 15-7 to Karasuno. In the back of his mind, Hinata knows not to get complacent about that score—has seen several teams catch back up in the blink of an eye because their opponent dropped their guard—but since the score in the first set was 25-14, at this point he doubts they’ve come up with anything worthwhile to get them back in the match.

That is, until _it_ happens.

Keigo receives the serve cleanly—something they _are_ good at—and their setter prepares to set the ball to #3, who runs straight down the court in front of where Kageyama and Tsukishima are preparing to block. Tanaka’s on the other side, ready in the case of a block-out, with Noya to his right on the back line.

Tsukishima and Kageyama jump right as the spiker does, arms stretching out high over the net, but just as they do the spiker smashes the ball—and it hits Kageyama cleanly on the bridge of his nose, snapping his head back. He falls like a ragdoll dropped from a great height. He doesn’t get his feet underneath him before he hits the ground, just seconds before Asahi, Daichi and Noya snap out of their respective stupors and lunge forward to try and catch him. The crack of his skull against the floor is sickening.

The ball hits the ground beside Kageyama and rolls away.

“ _Kageyama!_ ”

Ukai is across the court from the sidelines in a flash, kneeling down beside Kageyama but with a sharp reprimand of, “ _Don’t move his head!_ ” from Takeda, he quickly rethinks his decision to move Kageyama’s head and check for injuries. There’s no blood, so at least there’s that. Takeda already has his phone in hand, calling for an ambulance.

Hinata kneels on Kageyama’s other side, shocked to the core. He can’t believe what he’s seeing. Kageyama’s eyelids are fluttering, the red mark on his face rapidly darkening into a bruise. His nose doesn’t look broken, but Hinata knows there’s no way he doesn’t have a concussion. Not with how hard he hit his head—twice.

Numbly, he realises that the other team is—the other team is _congratulating_ themselves. They’re grinning and patting each other on the back. This was a _practice match_ , and they decided to go ahead and injure their setter because they were losing? Quite suddenly, Hinata is full of raw fury.

“The emergency services are on their way,” says Takeda grimly, stowing away his phone. “They said not to move his head if we can help it.”

“Those bastards,” hisses Hinata through his teeth. “Those utter fucking _bastards_.”

Nobody reprimands him for his language. Hinata glances around. Tanaka and Noya are being restrained by Asahi and Suga, whose faces are all the very picture of rage. Daichi’s hands are clenched into fists, his face a mask of calm that would fool anyone unused to it; that is the face of a man who wishes to grind his enemies to dust.

Tsukishima and Yamaguchi are talking in low voices, both of them stone-faced. As much as they aren’t close to Kageyama, Hinata knows they’re angry too. When someone purposefully injures your teammate, there’s no way to be unaffected by it.

“I want to resume the match once Kageyama’s gone to the hospital,” says Hinata. “I want to destroy these fucking bastards.”

The rest of the team, sans Kageyama for obvious reasons, agrees.

“I’ll talk to them, see if they’re happy to wait,” says Takeda, before he goes and does just that. Keigo High Volleyball Club doesn’t have a coach, but they do have a faculty advisor, so Takeda shares a few words with him and the captain—who smiles smugly and nods in agreement to whatever Takeda’s telling them. “They’re willing to wait,” he says once he returns.

“Good,” says Noya. “Because we’re gonna kick the shit out of them!”

“Yeah!” Tanaka chimes in. “We’ll teach these shitty assholes not to mess with us!”

“Save it for the rest of the match,” says Daichi. “We’ll teach them a lesson.”

The ambulance arrives ten minutes later. By that point Kageyama’s eyes are open, but they’re glassy and he doesn’t seem to recognise anyone talking to him. It takes all of two minutes for the paramedics to get immobilise his head and neck with a brace and get him onto a stretcher.

“I’ll go with him,” says Takeda to Ukai quickly, his eyes darting from Ukai to the paramedics as they carry Kageyama out of the gym, “and I’ll notify his parents on the way. Good luck.” He spins on his heels and runs from the gym.

“We’re ready to resume the game,” says Ukai to Keigo, all of whom perk up immediately.

Perhaps Keigo thinks this’ll be easy now that their genius setter is gone, Hinata thinks. But unlike most teams, they don’t rely solely on their setter; they have their own strengths and their own capabilities. As Suga dons a bib and rushes onto the court to take Kageyama’s place, with Tsukishima preparing to serve on the back line, Hinata feels a thrill of excitement at the prospect of crushing his newfound enemy.

As soon as the ball goes over the opposite side of the net, the blockers are ready for them. Hinata, Daichi and Suga leap into the air and attempt to block a spike; instead, Suga gets a one-touch and Asahi is there to receive it, sending it right back to Suga.

“To me!” Hinata screams, dashing down the side of the court to where there are no blockers—and they’re too slow to move. Too slow to comprehend that Hinata’s already gone until it’s too late; Suga sends the toss to Hinata—a bit too slow for his liking but Suga isn’t Kageyama—and Hinata smashes his hand into it with all his strength; it hits the shoulder of one of the players in the back row and knocks him off his feet. “Yes!”

 _Hurt Kageyama like that and we’’ll make you pay,_ thinks Hinata with savage glee. Tanaka spikes the ball into the opposite side of the court with such velocity it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine it ripping off the arms of anyone who dared tried to obstruct it from its intended course. _Hurt Kageyama and_ I’ll _make you suffer._

Keigo quickly realises their mistake in deliberately injuring Kageyama; hurt one crow, the rest of the murder will come after you, out for your blood. On the front lines, Tsukishima blocks like a man possessed; the ball hardly gets past him. As much as he and Kageyama don’t get along, even he’s pissed off. When he’s on the court, Noya receives just about every ball that comes flying his way. Everyone is putting in a hundred-and-twenty percent of their capabilities and Keigo is swiftly overwhelmed and defeated.

“Thank you for coming,” says Ukai to the faculty advisor, shaking his hand once with enough strength to make the advisor wince.

There’s no ‘let’s have another match sometime’ or ‘good luck in the prelims!’ because nobody in Karasuno wants to lay eyes on them again, nor wish them luck in any of their future matches. Keigo shuffles out of the gym like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs and Hinata hopes that he never sees their faces ever again.

“Ring Takeda!” Noya and Tanaka shout immediately, jumping up and down in front of Ukai, who flinches at the suddenness of their appearance.

“Yeah!” Hinata joins in. “I wanna know how Kageyama is!”

It doesn’t take much wheedling to get Ukai to do it; he rings Takeda, who informs them that Kageyama’s to take a couple weeks from volleyball—one of them will be spent away from school entirely—and he’s to spend a couple of days at the hospital so that he can be closely monitored. According to Takeda, he’ll be there at the hospital until Kageyama’s parents arrive, and then he’ll be on his way back to school.

“Congratulations on winning,” says Takeda. “Although we all know it was a given.”

Karasuno cheers, slapping each other on the back.

“I’ll see you all soon,” says Takeda warmly, and disconnects the call.

 

* * *

 

 

Volleyball is weird without Kageyama there. A week seems to drag by incredibly slowly; Hinata practices serve receives and teams up with Suga to practice spiking. It’s not the same though, because Kageyama’s not there to yell at him or grab his hair whenever he stuffs up. There’s no quick spike because Suga can’t toss the ball as quick as Kageyama can, can’t keep up as easily as Kageyama can.

Kageyama isn’t there to challenge Hinata. No racing to the gym, no racing to clean up after practice. When they go to Ukai’s store after practice, Kageyama’s not there munching happily on a meat bun.

Volleyball without Kageyama is strange and wrong. Hinata can’t wait for him to heal and rejoin them for practice. There’s a hole in the team that only he can fill.

When the second week rolls in, it’s almost odd to see Kageyama sitting on the bench. Last week felt like forever, to the point where Hinata had doubted it would ever end.

Hinata’s blood starts pumping the moment he lays eyes on Kageyama. The sudden urge to get in his face and annoy him is almost too difficult—too impossible—to ignore. Wants to go back to the old, familiar dynamic of bickering, dodging fists and pushing each other to the limit of their abilities on the court.

“Hinata,” Suga calls, flagging Hinata down. “Kageyama’s not going to be able to practice tossing to you much for the next few days. We’re easing him back into training.”

It’s then that Kageyama meets Hinata’s eyes. Hinata buries a flinch at the dark bruise on Kageyama’s forehead that was starting to turn yellow at the edges. He can’t imagine how much Kageyama’s head must’ve hurt after getting struck that hard.

“But he can toss to me for a bit?”

Suga sighs. “Yes, but if he’s not up to his usual speed—”

“Don’t worry,” Hinata interrupts quickly, “I won’t get mad at him. I understand.”

“Good.”

“So … does that mean I can go now?”

Suga sighs again. “Yes, I suppose.” His warm smile is almost motherly as Hinata bounds off to pester Kageyama.

“Toss to me! Toss to me Kageyama!” Hinata shouts. “Toss, toss!”

“Shut up,” snaps Kageyama, standing. “I heard you the first time!”

He tosses to Hinata without much complaint after that, and only gives himself a minute’s pause when he needs to so that he doesn’t overdo it. He’s a little slower than usual, but Hinata takes it in his stride.

When Hinata asks, Kageyama says his head still hurts a bit and it isn’t unusual for him to have a dizzy spell—but as long as he doesn’t push it, he’ll be fine in no time.

“I heard you guys thrashed Keigo after I was gone,” says Kageyama. They’re on the bench now, Daichi having stepped in and ordered Kageyama to take a break. Technically Hinata is supposed to be practicing right now, but nobody said a word when he bounded off the court after Kageyama.

“’Course we did!” says Hinata loudly, feeling the old burn of anger at the thought of their disgusting former opponent. “After what they did, there’s no way we could’ve let them get away with it.”

Kageyama’s lips twitch. “Thanks.”

“None necessary!” says Hinata. “I’d— _we’d_ do it again in a heartbeat. We’re just glad you didn’t get hurt any worse. You’re not that smart to begin with—aah!” Hinata cackles and leans back to escape Kageyama’s hand, which had shot out in an attempt to seize his hair and pull. “So mean, Kageyama!”

“Dumbass Hinata.”

“Dumbass Kageyama.”

When Kageyama shoots him a glare that holds no anger or malice in it, Hinata beams at him so bright that Kageyama’s cheeks flush and he looks away like he’s embarrassed. He mumbles another “Dumbass” and rubs the back of his head awkwardly.

If the fiasco from the previous week taught Hinata anything, it’s that he’s really glad he has Kageyama by his side as his partner in volleyball and his friend—because not having him around is strange and weird and he really doesn’t like it.

One day he’ll figure out what his true feelings are where Kageyama’s concerned, but for now, it all feels rather simplistic, and Hinata grins at Kageyama with all the warmth and brightness of the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come follow me on Tumblr for more Kagehina!](http://beaunaratau.tumblr.com/)


End file.
